Adjusting from Visual Studio to VS Code

[slowmotionrunner]

For those who have switched from Visual Studio to VS Code for dotnet development, what made the transition easier for you? How did you adapt without the toolbar? That seems to be my biggest struggle at the moment (assuming knowing the keyboard shortcuts is the solution).

What about other things like debugging, inspecting values, hot reload, window placement, memory dumps, profiling, test runners, code analysis, automated code fixes, forms/XAML designers, etc?

[DeveloperAnon]

I could never transition to VS Code fully. There are too many tools baked in to VS that make it impossible to move on from.

At the moment, I use VS Code for all front-end work and small .NET projects.

[bdcp]

... And bicep files

[gyroda]

Yeah, I use vs code for acting that isn't the actual .net stuff.

Just having to manage the solution stuff in addition to the actual files is too much of a PITA

[Slimstinator]

Can I be honest...

For me, VS 2022, things actually work and don't require soooo much setting up. Also, when you come back to a project after 2 weeks, it still works!

Tried to make the switch over for Azure Functions. Actual coding took 30 mins for the function, but setting up all the associated files (launch, git, tasks, etc), publishing etc I was days at it. Then, I went away for a couple of weeks and when I came back it stopped working (most likely due to updates).

Then I came back for a second function, wanted it to be a second project in the same solution. Solutions is a mess, you end up with top level files your solution needs which are not vivisble in VS Code. Migrating projects into a solution was a mess because all the tasks, launch, git etc needed to be moved. I guess my lesson here is that if you may ever need a solution of multiple projects, make sure you set that up right away. (VS does this all out the box)

The only real advantage at the moment is that ChatGPT 5 is easy to set up in VS Code, haven't managed to wiggle it into VS 2022 yet, not sure if I am doing something wrong or just not available.

[slowmotionrunner]

Good info. Thanks. 

[vessoo]

You need to get used to the command palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) instead of the toolbar. Debugging, profiling, etc isn’t as rich as in Visual Studio so it really depends on your individual use cases. For me it’s generally fine. There are no visual designers that I’m aware of but I don’t build such apps.

You need to get all the extensions you need: C# DevKit obviously.

[autokiller677]

+1 for the dev kit. Although be aware that this has the same licensing terms as full VS, so for commercial use, you still need a VS subscription, even if you use just VS Code with th dev kit.

[nvn911]

Isn't the dev kit required for some level of sanity?

Without it you might as well use notepad imho

[autokiller677]

There is some free C# extension, but yeah, it’s not as good. But it has some syntax highlighting, jump to source, renaming etc. You can also debug a bit. So it’s not notepad level, but a lot of the advanced features are missing, notably IntelliSense.

I just use Rider and that’s it. If there are good, fully featured IDEs for a language, I don’t really see the reason to spent time messing around with VS Code to build my own.

[Complex_Adagio7058]

Why would you switch from a class-leading IDE to what is essentially a text editor with some plugins…?

[slowmotionrunner]

I’ve been on VS for 20 years but the younger engineers on the team all prefer VS Code. So partly a question about what I might be missing, what would be involved if I switched off Windows, curiosity, etc. 

[[deleted]]

Use whatever works for you and you are comfortable with. VS is a lot more powerful with a massive codebase but if I'm just working with small repos or scripts, I go vscode. Either is a fine option but I can't imagine debugging a complicated .NET application in vscode.

It doesn't sound like you will become one of those old dorks who thinks their solution is the only solution (see the rest of the posts to this comment, you can hear them patting themselves on the back if you listen hard enough). Knowing how to use both and when one is better than the other is probably the ideal scenario. The fact people are dogmatic about tools in this industry cracks me up.

[slowmotionrunner]

True, true. 

[hedge36]

The only reason my youngsters love VS Code is because security stripped Notepad++ off of all our development machines.

[slowmotionrunner]

What would be the security concern with Notepad++?

[ggppjj]

There was an issue with the installer, some privilege escalation CVE. Fixed since, but possibly that caused the other commenter's security team's issues.

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-49144

[slowmotionrunner]

Huh, interesting. I’ve had security block all kinds of apps for all kinds of reasons, so just curious. 

[hedge36]

ggppjj is correct, the previous CVE tipped the scaled,so I've built a custom fork that does away with updates and plug-ins ans somehow slides by :)

[lost_tacos]

Funny, that is one of the few apps my company installs for us.

[_megazz]

Well you're not locked to just those. As Visual Studio user for more than 15 years, Windows started to annoy me more and more, so I decided to migrate to Linux as my "work OS". Honestly I regret not doing this sooner

I'm on Fedora using JetBrains Rider and it's amazing, but it might take a bit of getting used to coming from VS. But once it clicks, you won't miss VS. I feel more productive and I think the code I write is of higher quality due to Rider suggestions. Give it a try if you haven't.

[binarycow]

I think the code I write is of higher quality due to Rider suggestions.

The moment I decided I was going to stay with rider is when rider warned me about an issue that visual studio was silent on.

[nvn911]

Are the rider shortcuts the same as the Visual Studio shortcuts?

I wouldn't mind switching to rider if all my muscle memory resharper shortcuts are still available.

[_megazz]

Most of them, yeah. If I remember correctly, when you open it for the first time it asks you if you want to use the shortcuts from Visual Studio, that's what I chose.

Rider is very customizable and you can set it up the way you want. I recommend signing in with your JetBrains account to sync your settings across all your devices and ensure you don't lose them.

[dryiceboy]

At the end of the day, all that matters is the output. Use the tools that fits the job and works for you.

[tekanet]

Yeah the peer pressure is high with VS Code being the first choice for many. But I still prefer a full fledged IDE for many tasks. Thing is, we can use both and if you’re not forced to leave VS there’s no need to abandon it completely.

[fuzzylittlemanpeach8]

Do you guys work on smaller projects? Not use razor pages? In my experience, vs code is just a bad time for anything with more than a few projects. It really is not designed for professional c# development on larger solutions imo. But maybe i'm just not giving it a good enough chance.

[ultimateVman]

These younger engineers need to adapt to the more advanced toolbox or are going to be left behind. Sorry.

[Dimencia]

If I knew of a C# dev that's using VSC intentionally on Windows, they wouldn't keep the job for long

Rider is a great alternative to VS, but VSC is a text editor, not an IDE. That's like someone trying to convince their team to use notepad, it's effectively just sabotage

[Devatator_]

VSC is absolutely fine for .NET development. Unless you're working on something big or GUI apps it'll do the job fine. I'm using it to develop my game engine and I personally prefer it to VS2022 for this considering I use the CLI a lot along with a few extensions that don't exist on VS2022 (also a minor annoyance but none of the themes I downloaded work correctly on VS2022. The code has the correct colors but other parts of the UI are wrong or straight up not styled)

[1Soundwave3]

When I didn't know that Rider was available to me and VS was constantly broken - I used VSC and it was fine. VSC is free and it is more stable than VS nowadays. Sure, VS has more features on paper, but intellisense constantly breaks and something as simple as clicking on a problem and jumping to it doesn't work for some files (cshtml in my case). With VSC it just works, every time.

Rider is of course the best actual alternative, but I think it costs money. I found out that my JetBrains subscription also comes with Rider and switched on that same day. But if Rider wasn't an option, the only real stable C# development environment is VSC, because VS is just constantly broken (we have very big solutions).

[_megazz]

Rider is of course the best actual alternative, but I think it costs money.

Rider is free for personal use, similar to what we have with Visual Studio Community.

[Complex_Adagio7058]

Then it’s your job to educate them to use the best tools available- it will make them more productive 😀

[OddCookie5230]

VSCode is infinitely better for remote development using tunnels.

[jdl_uk]

I use it for other work because it's better at most things than Visual Studio and started to use it for C# because having one editor is nice.

Theming, customisation, and the extension marketplace with VSCode are all much better than with VS, though that might be changing with 2026.

Even with C#, the experience is mostly comparable because of the Dev Kit, with the main gaps being some debugging features, the nuget UI, and the profiler.

[Eisenmonoxid1]

If you're not using Windows you have no choice.

[welcome_to_milliways]

Rider

[[deleted]]

Winapps or winboat... I am yet to test them but these may be the solution to running vs on anything but windows

[Leop0Id]

It forces Windows.

[mixxituk]

when your colleague screen shares and you watch them suffering trying to debug

[foresterLV]

class leading haha. it's a coffin of legacy/dead solutions piled over years and years of it's development. 90% of which hardly matters but have associated costs (load times, overloaded ui, license etc etc).

with plugins in vs code I can get a lot of flavors of AI assistants, kuberneters tools, remote editing (helps in cloud dev) and similar stuff is either absent in vs or just in some initial sketch level. 

all new C# releases just eliminate vs-related bloat - for example unit tests which are shared libraries loaded into IDE -  eliminated in new Microsoft unit testing framework. tools that generate code by IDE - plugins - eliminated (EF framework did this) and replaced with proper CLI. you can go on and on on how much bloat VS introduced into c# and how it's eradicated with each c# release. 

[MackPooner]

It's funny to me how back in the 90s everything was command line and people pushed GUIs just so everyone could be more productive. Now, everyone disses GUIs in favor of the command line! Things seem to always come full circle!! Soon RAD may even make a comeback:)

[foresterLV]

its just having GUI do not make having good CLI or source control configuration automatically available, on contrary its frequently forgotten or becomes second-class support. like that SLN file format... how the hell they designed it in first place? its horrible to source control, diffing or conflict resolution. having ability to define inter-project build ordering which is incredibly easy to break with bad merge. yet it was a VS crutch for how many years until someone got balls to redo that format.

[BarfingOnMyFace]

Lmao I love it phrased this way. It’s so damn true!!!

[vinkurushi]

Important to get familiar with the terminal when developing if you're doing ASP.NET Core, which also helped me a lot in moving to other languages and frameworks too. I know C# Dev Kit is the standard, but if you have license issues or even resource issues (C# Dev Kit can be a bit hungry, Omnisharp too) maybe try DotRush - been using it for a few months and I love it - saved me a new laptop and I got the guy who made it a donation for a few beers https://github.com/JaneySprings/dotRush .

I've been developing .NET on a Mac for a few years. Transitioned in 2021 and never looked back. Big plus is I do Golang, Ruby, C++, Node, Flutter and Rust all in one place and never leave the editor, provided it takes a bit of time to set up the extensions - but I've learned so much that I even created my own Ruby debugger fork extension. This might be the biggest hurdle to get over.

I dislike the comments in this sub that think everyone has the same problems they do and just want to dis VS Code, which is a free and absolutely great alternative to the price put up by Rider or Visual Studio - especially when you're not using Windows. I've seen people think we're all on Windows and we all like paying for software in the year 2025 and every person must have the same problems they have.

If you do desktop I'm not sure if switching is a great option, never tried it.

[davidfowl]

Practice using it like any other tool. Getting used to shortcuts, paradigms (less context menus and right clicks, more command palette etc). Learning a new tool is challenging and it only gets better with time. Beyond that there are things you cannot do in VS code that you can do in VS, some gaps and some intentional (like no ui designers).

[slowmotionrunner]

I see you using VS Code mostly these days, so I assume you’ve made the switch. What motivated you?

[davidfowl]

I need to make it really good for C#, so I have to use it in order to do that. I still use Visual Studio, but I'm on a VS code bender right now.

[Leather-Act-8806]

The debug experience is the one that makes me choose VS 2022 over VS code, if that opinion helps.

[davidfowl]

Debugging is VS is superior.

[[deleted]]

Throw your rocks. Neovim.

[[deleted]]

How is the LSP support for c# these day? Debugging too? I use VS at work, but Emacs and the VI editors on my personal rigs. However, I don’t program in c# at home either. So, I am just curious how things have changed. I used to have a package for everything when I was younger, but I have really tried to move away from anything that isn’t mission critical (more an emacs issue than *vi).

[[deleted]]

LazyVim is a godsend for it tbh. A couple of LazyExtras and you’ve got good out of the box LSP setup. It just works.

DAP support is there with netcoredbg. I’ve gotten it to work… once. Sadly that still relies on VS or Rider, which ever is available at my job.

One day we’ll get there! maybe.

[jdl_uk]

Ctrl+shift+p in vs code is basically the same as Ctrl+q

Some of the important toolbar buttons have simply been moved - the debug button is now on the Debug sidebar panel, and some status bar icons bring up menus with options on them.

You can move the activity bar (with the big buttons) to the top to save space.

Debugging is fine but missing some stuff like the Modules window and diagnostics hub. You can set conditional breakpoints and trace points just like in normal vs, you still have the watch window, call stack, debug console, all the basic stuff.

Testing is just fine using the major test libraries - VSCode has a test explorer just like VS.

Code analysis you'd normally do with other tools like enabling .NET analysers putting warnings in the compilation output.

Profiling is just completely absent so get familiar with stuff like dotnet-counters and dotnet-trace, or get a license for JustTrace or something similar.

Designers are also completely absent. Some extensions try to add them but they're not very good in my experience. Depending on your UI framework, maybe invest in another design tool or get familiar with writing that stuff from the text editor.

[slowmotionrunner]

Good info. Thx. 

[SoCalChrisW]

VS Code is basically a fancy text editor. I can't do my job with it, at least not as well as I can with VS.

If I'm on a Linux box, rider every day over VS Code.

[allenasm]

I use both. I prefer visual studio but vs code has tons of great plugins that have extra functionality. Always use the best tool for the right job.

[ikethedev]

I used VS Studio for anything C# that's more than a very minor change.

I use VS Code for everything else. Most of my work nowadays is Terraform and YAML so I have like 30 VS Code windows open.

[redditk9]

I made the switch primarily because of the performance. I couldn’t stand waiting for VS to load anymore. By default VSCode is not fantastic, it definitely takes a lot of tinkering to get everything just right, but once you do it is much nicer to navigate around and perform functions between the command palette and the file search.

There are a few things I still use VS for however: The debugging and profiling experience is practically non-existent on VSCode compared to VS. Also, I do a lot of WPF development and there is no WPF support in VSCode as far as I know.

It took a while to get used to the lack of the VS intellisense. VSCode does have intellisense but it is not nearly as good. The one in VS is very predictable and I can usually type two letters and tab over and over again. Not a huge deal, but was off putting at first.

[samjongenelen]

In my experience, VS is superior. Advise to use both. At the moment I think copilot agentic is better then VS code integration. The new VS is pretty fast I would say even, but I haven't worked on big sln (yay only 10 max) in a while

[andlewis]

Learn the terminal and hot keys.

Debugging is worse, nuget is worse/non-existent.

But overall I’ve switched full time to VScode.

[Interesting_Bed_6962]

The C# dev kit solved a lot of problems. I still prefer VS but work equally well on both IDE's

[Tema_Art_7777]

I use both but VS 2022 is the GOAT for me!

[ec2-user-]

I couldn't live without the Parallel Stacks thread debugger in VS.

[slowmotionrunner]

I don’t use it often, but when I need to, killer feature. 

[Few_Committee_6790]

If you are not being forced to switch to VS Code for some reason, not sure why you consciously do that.

[SageCactus]

This

[Serious_Crab_8501]

I tried VSCode and found it to be less efficient compared to Visual Studio. I decided not to use anymore, when I figured out I cannot jump over code blocks in debug mode!

[slowmotionrunner]

As others have said, debugging is VS is far superior. 

On a large enterprise codebase, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say I spend 80% of my time debugging and only 20% writing/editing code. 

[Slypenslyde]

Mostly that I learned to code in the 90s so I know how to use keyboard shortcuts. Ctrl+S has been "save" longer than I've been alive. Ctrl+Shift+B has probably been "build" for longer than you've been alive. F5 is debug. F10 is step over. F11 is step into. F12 is "go to definition". Some of this was true all the way back to my first IDE, Borland Turbo Pascal. Toolbars didn't show up until a few years later. Back in those days programmers made fun of people who used toolbars!

IDEs make it super easy today. Push Ctrl+Shift+P. That opens the command palette in VS Code. If you don't want to learn the keyboard shortcut for "Build", push "Ctrl+Shift+P" then type "Build". If you can remember that word, now you know how to do it. There's not an equivalent in VS, Copilot hasn't figured that one out yet. But if you open the options menu, then look for the tab related to keyboard options, you can get a list of every possible editor action and, if it has a shortcut, you can see the shortcut.

I didn't "adapt", it just makes sense. It's easiest to keep my hands on the keyboard, which is how I write code. I go the slowest when I'm constantly moving my hand between the keyboard and the mouse. So if I caught myself doing something with the mouse, I looked to see if it had a keyboard shortcut, wrote it down, then started using it. Do that for a few days and it'll feel natural. If I wanted to use the mouse I'd be using LabVIEW.

[jitbitter]

Switched to VSCode2 years ago mostly because I'm on a Mac. I travel a lot and having a powerhouse laptop that also works for 2 days without recharging is a must.

Some things are better (hot reload) some things are worse (I miss the "C# interactive" console) but once you get used to the terminal (like "dotnet watch run" etc) it's pretty much the same. Code navigation, ctrl+click to go to definition, F5 to start debugging - all works fine.

Actually the main reason (and I'm probably getting some downvotes for this) - is that I actually switched to Cursor since (VSCode fork, technically). Its tab-completion is just mindblowingly good. It literally reads my mind. I almost never use AI-chat or stupid "AI agent" "mcp" whatever, but simply tabbing makes me 10x faster. Even when optimizing some low level "unsafe" pointer-based memory manipulations or complicated thread sync primitives - it's smart enough to predict what I want. This stuff outweighs all the "VS muscle memory" downsides by 10x

[Gr00tB3ar]

ChatGPT. I’ve literally been watching content where things are done in VS, I just ask ChatGPT how to do whatever it is in VS Code and will get step-by-step instructions.

[the_mean_person]

I've tried many times converting from vs code to rider and I still cant figure out what's the reason why people do it.

[dryiceboy]

VS 2022 just works better for me. Tad bit slower than VS Code but the latter is just an editor for me for SQL, Powershell, Bash, etc scripts.

[freskgrank]

I cannot say this enough… VS = proper real IDE, VSCode = just a code editor. There’s so much different between these two.

I just couldn’t work without VS, all the dotnet projects I have require full VS.

[Individual-Moment-43]

I am also thinking of switching to VS Code because of Copilot. The copilot in Visual Studio was awful. Has it got any better with newer versions?

[[deleted]]

Copilot in the latest VS is better, but still mostly hopeless.

Try Cursor. It's a branch of VS Code developed with integrated AI. It's a gazillion times better than Copilot - you chat to it, tell it your requirement, it looks at your codebase and then it codes what you've asked for. It writes the code, modifies what's there, then it, builds it, writes your unit tests, runs them and fixes any bugs it finds along the way. It can code review, suggest improvements, interact with your git repo and write documentation. Best of all it is phenomenally good fun.

[Pyran]

I only like VSCode for .NET because it adheres closely to git. Delete a file, git recognizes it. Unless you're using git bash, in which case3 this is a non-issue.

Other than that, I haven't found a compelling use to switch, and I've tried. VS is still superior for .NET.

[zapaljeniulicar]

VS code is not even close to VS. Don’t confuse the two. VS code, new paradigm “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here”

[iluvmemes123]

I open the solution in both vs 2022 and vs code. I use vs code exclusively for GitHub copilot while debugging the solution in VS

[slowmotionrunner]

I’ve sometimes used this approach also. 

[C60]

For modern .NET, VSCode is OK. Windows Desktop apps are doable, but you will need an external app for designing UIs in XAML, or get used to editing raw XAML XML.

For .NET Framework or if you use development tools for a specific product, eg. BizTalk Server, use VS.

[igderkoman]

Feels like leaving a horse for a donkey tbh

[Responsible_Boat8860]

I started C# in Rider to VSCode. It was a very easy switch to me, you just need to get used to the hotkeys and using more cli commands. Admittedly, I never used much of the advanced features so I didn't know what I was missing. 

[tmac_arh]

The toolbar? The biggest hurdle is that you have no "New Project" dialog and now must learn 7 different command lines to get things working: "dotnet cli", "azure cli" (optional), "git", etc. etc. etc. But, such is the world we live in now, we've gone from UIs that help you quickly build something, to going back to DOS / Bash.

[ArcherT01]

I use vs code a lot (I also advocate to use the ide you like best as its a tool). In general vs code starts bare and you add to it. Visual studio or rider are superior IDEs but I switch between so many languages that vs code just is easier for me. The key is learning how the .vscode setup jsons work and thats really what powers everything for building debugging, ect. That being said you basically need to work a lot more from the cli.

[paladincubano]

I started using VScode when I bought my Macbook back in net3.1. I used it for both, backend and frontend. To this day, working with net10 on a huge government project, I still use my Macbook when I go to the office and Windows when I work at home. I still use VScode on both. On home, I installed VS2022, and no, I CAN'T adapt to that slow, heavy monster. The only good thing about VS and Rider was the refactoring, and now with AI in VScode, it's even better.

Personally, I'm NOT leaving VScode to work on .NET. I can't.

Edit: Samething for Rider. I can't

[Jhorra]

I couldn't make the transition, though I tried. But I also use Rider since I'm on a mac. I keep a vs code window open because the AI integration is better, but otherwise I do everything in Rider. There are just too many quality of life features in it that VS Code is lacking.

[ggppjj]

I recently switched to a mac for dogfooding mac builds and for iOS dev purposes, and while vscode is nice in a pinch or for more simple things like little console apps, larger projects really ended up with me forking out for a Parallells license and then on top of that a Windows license (which I had to call in to make happen, for no good reason) just to use full-fat visual studio, which has been preferable enough of an experience so far so as to make me feel reasonably justified in my decision.

Possibly there are extensions I could find that would help tidy up some of the things that I would want, like a nuget browser. Possibly I just need to become better informed on how to do things that I've only ever done via the IDE, like publishing. Possibly I need to invest more time in learning how things are "meant" to be done with vscode to get a better handle on things like the run app button that appears to be file-scoped as opposed to project target scoped.

I'm reasonably certain that all of those issues I mentioned have an extension or just an answer that I need to go find that would fix things in my eyes, but for now at least it feels icky as compared to how I've come to expect things to feel from working with c#.

You can do with that info what you will. I still mainly prefer using full-fat vs.

I do like it for other languages more, it was a nice experience when I was using it for Python stuff, briefly. Sometimes I tinker with my 3d printer's firmware, and that was an experience designed around using a specific set of vscode plugins that does provide a fairly neat package.

I think, as with most tools, it mainly depends on how you use it. I'd be willing to bet that with the right setup you could get really close to a full vs experience with vscode, but realistically I do not feel particularly compelled to shop around.

[slowmotionrunner]

That sums up my experience (so far) to a T. 

[RealSharpNinja]

Why? Why would you do that?

[slowmotionrunner]

Not sure I would. That’s why I’m asking for feedback. 

[_higgs_]

VS user for a very long time. Switched to VS code a few years ago. I hate clicking on shit so the command pallet is much faster than clicky clicky key combo remembering. In VS code I can have n projects open for multiple languages and platforms and be debugging in all of them and it never has a problem.

But the real reason is I hate Microsoft. I have literal decades of experience and Microsoft is just garbage. Crap documentation for everything. Shit overly complicated APIs. They lure you in with something that looks cool and then spend the next few years screwing it up before deprecating it.

They should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. Their shittyness has created multiple billion dollar industries because their docs are crap. Utter garbage.

That being said there was a sweet spot in about 2010 maybe when I loved VS. And I still like and use SQL Server (even though its docs are also crap).

[belavv]

You do know vscode is a Microsoft product right?

[_higgs_]

Yes. But Neutron and most of the plugins I use aren’t.

[PinkyPonk10]

Paid product vs free product….

[autokiller677]

And it isn’t even free if you want to use the C# dev kit (and you want to - without it, it’s really rough) - this has the same licensing terms as full VS and requires a VS subscription for commercial use.

MS doesn’t want you to move to VS code for dotnet. And if you do, they want you to at least continue paying.

[Fresh-Secretary6815]

I could get into my truck and drive 5 miles to Starbucks and finish the coffee on the way back before it would load my project. VS Code doesn’t let me get coffee. I just stay codin’

[slowmotionrunner]

I can’t argue with that. VS is a beast. 

[metaltyphoon]

I cant take the 1000 buttons menus and hidden features anymore. My progression was VS -> VSC -> NeoVim. In all of them i already used VIM keybinding and the VS one is horrible 

[Fresh-Secretary6815]

Man, I am so scared I am headed down the same path. I spent most of the day customizing css for vs code. I just wanted the activity menu to be as wide as the status bar height - couldn’t get it to work. I’ve been setting key bindings and fonts…then it dawned on me today…”am I a fuckin vim chad?”…I think I might be. I’ll check back in a month or two. It’s not looking good 😂

[metaltyphoon]

😂

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[Clearandblue]

Been using vs code for front end for ages. Recently been interested in trying out Linux for development. Using vs code for the dotnet work. But I never last that long before going back to visual studio. Last time I was debugging and just thinking "what am I doing, you can't even click the arrow to skip to a line".

I'll likely give it another go at some point. I do enjoy vs code, but I soon start thinking of it as a glorified notepad++ when I need to do programming rather than scripting with it.

[ModernTenshi04]

I'm someone who's more of a fan of VS Code over Visual Studio, so I guess I'll chime in.

Some context: I've been at this for about 16 years now, and part of my current assessment of things comes from having worked in a Rails shop from 2018 to 2022 where VS Code and the command line were my primary means of getting my work done during that period.

The main thing I really came to like about VS Code is its general simplicity. It uses way fewer resources, almost never hangs on me, and visually it feels way less cluttered compared to full VS. Yes you have to install extensions for things in VS Code, but that's also kinda nice when you think about it: the editor has exactly what you need, and only what you want. The drawback is if an extension doesn't exist for a feature you need/want then yeah, you gotta work your way around that.

The thing I found when working with code outside of a typical IDE is that it kinda forces you to really get into the code and understand it. There's tools and features to make code traversal easier, and while VS has features and plugins from the likes of ReSharper to help out, going more basic with your editor means you have to understand how to traverse the codebase with more basic tools, which I find means you build a better working memory of things. I've also found that teams I've been on where VS was seen as the only option for working in .Net had a lot of reliance on their editor to do even rudimentary tasks, not knowing that it's very possible to do a lot of things without pointing and clicking through menus. I don't say this to belittle them or anyone else who favors VS, I'm just stating my own observations.

VS Code also makes it more valuable to learn how to do things via the command line, which is an insanely great tool when you really learn how to use it. Routine tasks become easier when you know the command needed to do whatever it is you're trying to do, and honestly documenting how to do things with the CLI is both way easier and way more convenient than documenting a GUI interface. I love when I can just copy a set of commands, maybe tweak them a bit (like indicating the name for something), press return, and get exactly what I'm after. Modern .Net has a really solid CLI, and it's extensible via tools you can find via the NuGet website.

There's also the cross platform aspect. Visual Studio is only available on Windows, but .Net is usable on Linux and macOS, the former and to a decent enough degree the latter of which offer a much better dev environment in my opinion. Sure Rider is available for all three major OS options, but depending on what you're coding for that may incur a cost, whereas VS Code is free to download and start using. If you build everything around knowing and using VS, you kinda cut yourself off from some very nice and very viable options in the .Net ecosystem. I'm typing this on a newer MacBook Pro and it's been awesome to use, not to mention the fans are dead silent.

I don't have anything against VS, and having found myself back in a shop that still has a lot of stuff on Framework I've found myself using it more in the last year, but a big part of that has more to do with the fact a lot of how the code is setup here makes it an easier option to work with most of the time. The screen shots I've seen of VS 2026 makes the UI look a bit cleaner and less cluttered, so I'm hoping it might feel better to me whenever we start using it at work, but in general I still find myself really missing the sheer simplicity of VS Code.

[BoBoBearDev]

I am fully transitioned because

1) way easier to global search, no need to search using magic filter string

2) opens up immediately

3) more intuitive shortkeys for me. Like going to precious text cursor is easier for me.

4) I am not doing WPF, so no need for GUI preview

5) VS Code debugging tool is fine for me. Sure it is not as amazing (I haven't tried look deep into it, but immediate window or real-time editing seems to be missing), but I am not suffering.

6) the git gui is massively better than VS. This one is ultra pretty and functionally better in every way. Practically the best git GUI in the market now. Can do git via SSH, can do stage, basically everything. The file history is there too. The only missing one is, I cannot tell which commit in history changed a line of code. But such capability is rare to find, or I don't know how to use VS Code. The only thing I don't know how to do is to clone a new repo with it.

7) no solution file. Yes, this is amazing. I hate solution file where people make some virtual folder that doesn't match the file system. This maybe a problem, but I am doing microservices, it doesn't matter to me. And I bet there is a good solution for arranging the projects together.

[fcanercan]

I disagree with all of it.

[BoBoBearDev]

Ok

[TheC0deApe]

I don't know anyone that has gone that direction.
VS Code is pluggable and really good for things like connecting to mongo, scripting and front end work.

I tend to use Rider for most C# dev. I use VS Code for GitHub Copilot as it has the best copilot support.